Half Marathon Trainers

Intrepid Racers - March 16 & 17 (Read 31 times)

Wow...Mega..Super...Huge race calendar weekend this week. 10 Half Marathons, 1 Full and 1 10-miler. What a group of overachievers!

A full bushel of folks are heading to the old whaling port in MA for the New Bedford half. NBHM always has a fast field as runners training for Boston in April are out to test their training. This year, New Bedford is also one of the NE Grand Prix races, so top runners from most of the area's running clubs will be there. Speed will rule the day and a time that would be top 25% at most other HM will be mid-pack at best. And, it's on St Patrick's Day...the bars will be packed afterwards.

A call out goes to Snickers1230 who has a 2xHM double planned Sat/Sun. Another shout out goes to mhoppe1 who is targeting 1:30 for his half in MN.

First half done this morning. I wasn't expecting too much since it was my first half on a trail and I didn't want to push too hard since I knew I had another half coming up tomorrow. Still somehow managed to get a 5 min and 3 sec PR! Also managed to get my first running blister... Goal tomorrow is to finish standing up I'll try to put a combined report up tomorrow

Finished my first 10 mile race today, and am very pleased with the result. I wrote a longer RR in the Beginners and Beyond group if anybody's interested.

Mile 1- 8:50

Mile 2- 8:41

Mile 3- 8:41

Mile 4- 8:40

Mile 5- 8:44

Mile 6- 8:32

Mile 7- 8:47

Mile 8- 8:36

Mile 9- 8:18

Mile 10- 8:16

Final 0.01 (hehe) 0:06 (7:06 pace)

That's some nice work, Zelanie. Way to go! Wow. Glad to hear you had an upbeat day.

What I see in these splits is that your target half marathon goal for Apr 14tth should be more like 8:45/mi or so. I wouldn't change any of your training paces between now and then. No. Leave the pick-up for race day. Based on this, were I advising you for your innagural half...I'd suggest opening comfortably at 8:50 - 9:00 for a bit, then slide into stead 8:45 to 8:50 through 10mi, then pick up from there.

No matter what, stay healthy and show up fresh and you've got sub-2:00 in hand for the 1st half.

Choosing my words carefully has never been my strength I've been known to be vague and often pointless

daneda

posted: 3/16/2013 at 9:04 PM

Well I did the Rock n Roll USA HM this morning in Washington DC. All in all, it went pretty well.

This was my 3rd half, but the first one where I actually trained hard or raced to my potential. My first half I trained as well as I could for just getting into running, but was so worried about starting out too fast that I didn't run it as hard as I could have. I actually glad I did this, because I had a really good time during my first race and still finished with a respectable 2:14. My second half I definitely was more confident with racing and raced to my potential but was asked by a friend to do it with short notice, so I hadn't trained as much as I should/could have. But got a finish time of 2:04. That is what motivated me to get a little more serious and aim for a sub-2hr run for this morning's race. Anyhow, long story short, I accomplished my goal with a finish time of 1:56:25, which I am happy with. I started out quite a bit slower for the first few miles than I would have liked to, due a bit to some tight muscles but mainly to the large crowds. But I am generally happy with today's results and see some more potential for improvement, which I am excited about.

Today marks the start of primarily trail running for me. My road race is over and I have a few trail events coming up this spring/summer. Additionally day light savings has started, meaning I can get trail runs in on weekdays now, so I am very excited for that. I have no real time goals when it comes to trail running, just to run my best and have some fun out in the woods. I'll probably start looking for a fall road half, and come up with a goal time for that sometime over the summer... After today's race though, I'll likely be looking for a smaller event.

But yeah, a pretty good day

Best of luck to everyone racing tomorrow, and hope everyone's races this morning went well!

MilkTruck- Wow, thank your for the GREAT advice. I guess it makes sense not to go super hard with my training paces between now and my HM since what I've been doing seems to be working and there's no point in jeopardizing that for a few seconds. But what I will do is not feel guilty when it seems like I'm putting in the right effort for the workout but I'm still accidentally faster than what McMillan says I should be running based on my old times. But there are days when that's certainly not the case!

Sounds like a great plan for my first half, too. I think I would be setting myself up for a good race if I follow it.

Daneda- Sounds like you obliterated your sub-2 goal! Way to go! Glad that you had a good race, and good luck with trail season! I definitely would like to get into more trail running now that we have more daylight.

Snickers - Impressive PR on a trail course! I'm excited to hear how you do this morning after yesterday's efforts!

Zelanie - That 10 miler must have you super stoked for your HM! Congrats on an impressive run! You should definitely give trail running a shot. Lots of fun, IMO. I love being out by myself, running through the trees!

Rondog65

posted: 3/17/2013 at 11:47 AM

There is some great racing going on here:

Snickers – Great job on your PR on the first half, enjoy the 2nd one today.

Daneda – A very impressive PR on your Half. Hopefully one day I will get my PR under 2:00. Your story is very inspiring.

Zelanie – Nice splits, I have followed some of your posts, looks like you are on your way to achieve your goal of a sub 2:00 half.

Keep up the good work everyone.

Ron's PRs 5K 24:14 (12/07/2013); Half Marathon 1:53:33 (5/26/2013)

Snickers1230

posted: 3/19/2013 at 12:29 PM

The second half on Sunday was definitely more challenging, but I ran a lot more than I thought I would. I ran the first 6 miles and was actually feeling pretty good. The next 3.5ish miles I walked every .5 miles. But when I hit somewhere around mile 10.5, my legs were done! I walked a lot of the last 3 miles. Which is okay cause it was still less than I originally anticipated The blister on my foot didn't really bother me which was good. However, I had bruised a toe nail a while back. And it's at the stage where the new nail is coming in so the old one is starting to come off (sorry, I'm trying not to be too gross!). So it was a little sensitive after Saturday's half so I was feeling that some on Sunday. I took my shoes off when I got to my car to let my feet breath and realized I had a blood blister at the base of the nail. My nail was raised some more so I think it must have been doing some extra rubbing on the top of my shoe. Anyway, it doesn't look pretty. Lol. I'm supposed to meet a friend on Thursday for an easy run. We'll see if I can get my foot in a shoe without it hurting by then

Oh, and definitely not my best half time on Sunday, but it wasn't my worst either so I guess that's something!

Totally forgot to post my race results from this past weekend. I was up in St. Paul, MN for the Get Lucky Half Marathon. The weather was quite cold, probably a little under 20 degrees at start time. It was especially cold since I haven't been running in anything like that here in Charlotte. I bundled up though, and was comfortable the entire run. When I grabbed a cup at the last water station, it turned out to be almost completely frozen. Didn't bother me, just gave me a laugh and actually probably helped me relax in the long run. Turned in a 1:30:51, about two minutes faster than the previous weekend. I was a little disappointed that I didn't hit my 1:30 goal, but hey, that's what other races are for.